John Barrett

Contact Information

Biographical Statement

John Barrett received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Nanotechnology from Boston University in Spring 2013.
He is working toward his Ph.D. in Biophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago under the dual mentorship of
Prof. Matt Tirrell and Prof. Joel Collier.
As an undergraduate, John worked with Prof. Hatice Altug to develop a multiplexing plasmonic biosensor integrated with a microfluidic device
to quickly and cheaply detect the adsorption of proteins and viruses in a label free manner. His current research aims to study and
characterize a potential peptide amphiphile micelle vaccine against Group A Streptococcus. His research interests broadly include
biomaterials, synthetic vaccines, immunoengineering and drug development.

Research

Peptide vaccines have the advantage of providing only the necessary epitopes to induce an
immunogenic response. Alone, however, they can be very weak immunogens. Our solution is to
deliver the epitope as part of a peptide amphiphile (PA) micelle system. This system creates a high local concentration of peptide, induces
peptide secondary structure and allows for modularity of micelle parts by inserting multiple amphiphiles or adjuvants (non-specific
immuno-stimulants). Most of my research will focus on developing a vaccine against Streptococcus pyogenes, which is the causative agent of
Group A Streptococcal (GAS) infections including Necrotizing Fascitis. Our PA and adjuvant mixed PA micelles have been shown to induce a
high antibody titer. However, the method of immunogenicity has yet to be worked out. Characterizing the immune response will finally
develop the full story for this vaccine. Additionally, I will be investigating alternate GAS vaccine candidates that will target and
disrupt streptococcal quorum sensing (bacterial cell-cell communication) pathways in collaboration with the
Federle Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. We propose that
these vaccines will help develop antibodies that interfere with pheromone production and detection.